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238.
Record rates starting in verse 9.
Philippians, Chapter 2.
And verse 9.
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him.
Giving him a name which is above every name, but at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, for the glory of God the Father. Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do with His good pleasure.
Do all things without murmurings and disputings, that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine His lights in the world, holding forth the word of life. That I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain.
Yeah, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all, for the same cause also to ye joy and rejoice with me.
00:05:00
But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send to Moses shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort when I know your state. For I have no man like minded who will naturally care for your state. For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ. You know the proof of Him, that as a Son with a Father, He has served with me in the Gospel. Him therefore I hope to send presently, so as soon as I shall see how it will go with me.
But I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly.
Yet I suppose it's necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and companion in labor, and fellow soldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants for a longed after you all, who was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that he had been sick. For indeed he was sick nigh unto death. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.
I sent him, therefore the more carefully that when you see him again, you may rejoice.
And that I may be the less sorrowful, receiving therefore in the Lord with all gladness, and hold such in reputation, because for the work of Christ, who was nigh unto death, not regarding his life, to supply your lack of service toward me.
Before we, umm, proceed on from verse 9 on, uh, our brother Bruce yesterday had mentioned that, umm, in between verses 5 and eight that there were seven steps down that the Lord Jesus took. And we probably had mentioned many of them, but not really in an order that, that we can see exactly where they are in these verses. And I was wondering, Bruce, if you wouldn't take a moment to just.
Give us those seven steps down that we get in this portion.
Well, first of all, the.
He did not Esteem is an object of rapine. And secondly, he emptied himself.
Thirdly, he took on him a form of a servant.
And then, fourthly, he took a place of likeness of men.
5th He humbled himself, six was obedient unto death, and 7th even the shameful death of the cross.
Thank you.
What we have before us now is that what He is in resurrection and ascension to the glory. And as we've been saying, these verses that lead up to the ninth verse are Christ as a pattern. I'd like to ask a question. Are these verses that we're now looking at in verses 9 through 11 a pattern as well? Are we to expect that if we humble ourselves and walk in the way that we should, is that Christ that has given us an example that we could expect to be exalted like this?
I asked that now is a question is that this still, umm, set before us as a pattern of some sort or example? I don't myself look to want to be glorified or exonerated or anything like that. So what would you say to that brother Don?
Yes.
Umm, the Lord Jesus is seen here in verse 10. The name of Jesus. That is the name that he bore as a man.
And that's the name that he was called among men, and that was the name by which he was despised. This is Jesus of Nazareth.
But as stated on his cross, when he took the last step downward, even the death of the cross, but God gave his answer, the Lord Peter, and preaching in the Acts this same Jesus.
When you crucified that God made both Lord and Christ that is.
Man said we won't have him.
God said. My answer is he's going to sit here at my right hand and.
And if we follow the Lord Jesus, we're not going to expect a better place in the world, but it is to God's glory. It's not our own exultation that we would want out of it, but we do want God to have his honor. And God's honor is that the one who is humbled in this life. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he might exalt you in due time. The exaltation is God's answer to the humiliation.
00:10:12
And it's to God's glory that it be so. In fact, as it says here, and not even of Christ, but in the verse that follows, it says that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
To the glory of God the Father. And it is to the glory of God the Father that we shall be exalted as well.
We think of glory.
In connection with suffering and so.
There's a measure of suffering for Saints down here, and there's glory to answer to that, but incomparable to the sufferings of the Lord and the glory, it belongs to Him in that connection. And I've enjoyed the thought that we have in First Corinthians and resurrection glory. I got the one star, the Persian glory from another star. There's glory. You can see that at night there's different glory, and some stars are brighter than others, but God has still set the universe and from a perspective from the earth when the sun appears.
Astronomers will tell you that there are more glorious stars in the sun. Well, to my eyes, when the sun appears, I can't even see the stars. So there's a measure of glory there, belonging to the Lord exclusively. So we're going to have glorified bodies, and we're going to be glorified with Him. But he's the one to be glorified in His Saints and admired, and then I believe, and His glory is beyond any measure of ours.
Wednesday at 10. Now that the name of Jesus.
Ebony should bowl of things in heaven and things on earth and sit under the earth.
Uh, it says here of.
But there must be the there must be people, men.
Because it's only people that can bow the knee.
And then he mentioned things in heaven. Does he mean the angels there? Things on earth of course are people and things under the earth I would take are those that have passed away in the Lord Jesus.
And but they can't bother me anymore.
That they did at their lifetime.
It it's a moral term, not a material term. Those under the earth so like the underworld.
Let me read it in Mr. Darby's translation because I think it's helpful. And that that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of heavenly and earthly and infernal beings. And so it shows that all are going to give obeisance in the coming day. Those who didn't bow the knee now will give bow the knee in the coming day. All heaven will own him in a coming day, but the infernal beings too will be caught, will have to own that he, uh, that Jesus Christ is Lord.
It will be to their eternal condemnation, but they will be forced to. All will be forced to bow the knee. It's important to recognize here that this is subjection, but not reconciliation. And so there are those creatures under the earth that are never reconciled, but it is subjection. All creation will be subject to the Lord Jesus.
I'd like to make one more comment with respect to glory.
And ourselves relative to it and John's Gospel chapter 17.
John's Gospel, chapter 17.
And verse well, to get the thought of it, start in verse 20 John 1720. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also, which shall believe on me through their word, that you and I in the room today.
And others that they all may be one.
As Thou, Father art in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that Thou has sent me. That will take place in the Millennium, the fulfillment of that prayer of the Lord and verse 22 and the glory.
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Which thou hast given me, I have given them.
That they may be one even as we are one.
As brother Michelle.
Very importantly, brings before us there are glories that are personal and official, that belong to the Lord Jesus, that are not shareable or ought not will not be shared.
But brethren, we want to see the heart of the Lord here. We want to see the heart of our God, our Father here participating in the coming glory.
Is the expression of the heart of God toward us. It's not a matter of merit. It's not a matter of deserving. That's in view, but the Lord Jesus own heart toward you and I is such that when he has his millennial glory over these things, he says to us, to the Father, he said.
I'm going to share it with them. I want them to share with me. I want the world to know that you love them as you love me and the way that the world will know that you love them as you love me.
Is that they participate with me in my glory, and so we are to be brought into a place of tremendous honor and glory as the bride of Christ, but beyond or in addition to that as those that are one in heart and fellowship and honor with the Father and the Son in in those things.
That are shareable.
Most very important, what Michelle says, God dwells an unapproachable light and glory which no man can approach unto, no man will, will never see, will never ever see, even an eternity, the full measure of the glory of God that's given to us in First Timothy chapter 5. It's unapproachable glory, but all that the creature can participate in either to see or to enjoy.
Will be ours for eternal joy and blessing and is in first John 17 that which is shared because it brings out the heart of God and the heart of the Lord Jesus toward us as it where he says Father, I don't want it without them. I want them to have it with me and that glory that he shares with us is really in the end going to bring a fuller display of his own glory, isn't it?
It was already quoted, but let me re quote it. The verse from Thessalonians says that He's coming to be glorified in His Saints and admired in all them that are about Him in that day. What does that verse saying? That verse is saying that when heaven opens up and we come back with Christ and the world looks up and they see the heavenly company, everyone is going to reflect fully the glories of Christ. We don't always reflect the glories of Christ now like we ought to.
But in that day you and I are wherever and wherever the world, the world looks, they're gonna see. And you and I fully reflected those glories. And that's really going to bring us, I say, a fuller glory to himself. And it's put before us, isn't it, Rather than to encourage us to go on. Now, just as with the Lord Jesus as a man, He had the glory before him. He ought to suffer and enter into his glory. Uh, it was stated. And so he had that. I often think that of that verse in the Old Testament.
Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. The Lord Jesus fully understood the import of that verse. He wept here in this world. There was suffering in this world as a man, and He left us the perfect example of His life, but He had the glory before Him. And I was thinking too, how in first John He brings that out as well. It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
To realize brethren, that as we follow the perfect example of the Lord Jesus, there's a day coming when the path here is going to end and not only are we going to be with Christ, the Lord Jesus took that up in John 14 that we're going to be with him. But John further develops it in the verse I quoted and said what says we're not only going to be with him, we're going to share in his glory. We're going to have bodies of glory.
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As Paul said in another place, bodies of glory like unto His body of glory. And when He appears, we're going to appear with them and we're going to be like Him. We're not going to see Him as He was, as He was with the lowly Man of Sorrows walking in this world as He was, was leaving us an example that we would follow in His steps as He was was hanging on a cross of shame crowned with a crown of thorns. We're going to see Him as He is, and we're going to reflect those glories that He's going to share with us.
And I say it's going to give a deeper and fuller display of his glory. And, brethren, that ought to rejoice our hearts, not simply that we're going to be glorified.
That's true, but to realize that in doing that, God is going to have more glory and a fuller display of glory brought to Himself and His Son the Lord Jesus. And I'd like to add to that just a little bit. We've been speaking about the display of the glory of the Millennium, but it goes beyond that, doesn't it? It is true that as we have in Second Timothy 2, if we suffer, we shall also reign with them. So that's true, But what happens after the Millennium?
Well, we have that in Ephesians.
Chapter 3, don't we? It goes to the eternal state. What happens to the believer, the Christian, I should say, after the Millennium? Well, we have that same thing, verse 20 of Ephesians 3 Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in US. And then this verse particularly unto him, the glory and the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end, That's the eternal state.
Amen. Now we do read in the 21St chapter of Revelation that distinctions between the nations and and Israel will disappear in the eternal state. But what about the Church? Well, this verse tells us that our position will go on throughout all eternity. We're identified with Christ right now, brethren, and the most intimate position that any creature has ever had or will ever have.
That's a wonderful thing. We looked at the whole scope of creation and verse ten of our chapter, but it's our privileged place to have the nearest place to the Lord Jesus Christ. The highest place accorded to any of creation is ours. Do we value that position? It'll go on not only in time, it'll go on through eternity. Well, God grant that we lay a hold of that and we walk in the dignity of that even now.
I don't think we want to lose.
The sense of why this is written is for the purpose of, umm, uh, encouraging us to go on together in unity, isn't it? And love. And so, uh, it's, it's in view that, that God pleases to identify, uh, ourselves with him, but it's to exercise us, uh, in a day of weakness, umm.
Remember that the that was brought out of the very first verse of this chapter was the fact that.
That there were those, umm, uh, that that assembly had been an encouragement and a comfort to the Apostle Paul while he was in prison and helping meet his needs. But there was a concern of difficulty that was amongst them of the vision. And this whole thing is written for that very purpose, isn't it? Is that it might encourage us to realize how blessed we are and to not only go down with the Lord Jesus.
Uh, to be exercised to humble ourselves and to love one another. But that God raised up a man in in Hebrews chapter one, he sets himself down. But here if God has raised up a man and glorified him for humble and obedient life. And so that's that's really the emphasis of this chapter, isn't it?
That's why, two, it's so beautiful. It's the name of Jesus.
Every niche should vows whether Don mention it. The name that was given to him in lowly manhood. It was that name that was so rudely put upon him, put above him on the cross. The name that today is used millions of times a day and blasphemy in a curse. God will see to it that that lowly name, every name will bow. If it was the name of the Lord, we understand that authority and majesty, that's true. If it was the name of Christ the Anointed 1:00, we'd understand that as well. But it's the name of Jesus.
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And every knee should bow. The last time the Lord Jesus was here, the soldiers bowed before him, but they bowed in mockery. And so we see this beautiful pattern of the Lord Jesus even here for us and God is going to have an answer to that like to just add 2. We've mentioned the millennial official Kingdom glory that the Lord Jesus will associate us with himself in to mention that eternal state when Christ will be glorified in the church throughout all ages, world without end. But there's also that side of things the immediate.
Glorification of the sun consequent upon redemption. I'd like to just read those verses in John 13 to make a little distinction between the immediate exaltation.
Of the Lord Jesus, and that yet future glorification that will be His.
John 13 and verse 31.
Therefore, when he, that is Judas Iscariot was gone out, Jesus said, now is the Son of man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in in in himself and shall straightway glorify him. When was the Son of man glorified in verse 31. That was at the cross when the Lord Jesus demonstrated all that man could and should be forgotten and all that beauty of love and perfection and obedience despite the hostilities and enmities that were hurled against him. What a man the Son of man was glorified there the moral glories displayed in their.
Uh, exquisite blessedness. And God was glorified in him in that work. That was, uh, to the last measure of devotion and obedience to him. Well, what's God's answer to that? If God is glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself. The verse is just quoted in Second Thessalonians that he's going to be glorified in his Saints. But that's future. That's the millennial day. God has glorified him and himself now, presently.
Consequent upon redemption. Consequent upon.
So it's a toning sufferings. This is God could say, I'm not gonna wait 1007 years plus for this. We're gonna, I'm gonna exalt him in myself and she'll straightway, immediately glorify him. So there are these two beautiful aspects of things. As our brother Ted quoted yesterday from Hebrews 2, we see Jesus, who has made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, when in the millennial day, no, presently by faith, we see him crowned with glory and honor consequent upon that work.
And yet this there is a day at hand and that's really what Revelation takes up that book that looks on to that coming day when that one who was cast out re rejected and ridiculed. That one will be exalted above, above that, uh, through this over the scene as you sing in that hymn and thou shalt to wandering world display that we with the year 1 associated with him in those Kingdom glories.
And so.
When He finished the work at the cross, God glorified Him in resurrection and in the present, as Ephesians one says, seated Him in His own right hand in the glory, in the place of glory. So as Bill mentioned, and we see the picture of it in Ephesians 1, where He has been raised from that state of lowly death by the glory of God. He was raised and seated at the right hand. And just one more thought.
From Acts Chapter 7 as to the present which Brother Bill was bringing out to us in Ephesians. I'm sorry, Acts Chapter 7.
When Steven is being.
Stoned.
He says in Acts 7 when verse 54 when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart and gnashed him on him with their teeth. But he being full of the Holy Ghost, looking up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, he sees this in anticipation of being there with Christ.
00:30:00
And I believe, brethren, part of why it can say to us to depart to be with Christ is far better is that those such as our brother Clem Buchanan are today. We sit here in our limitations and capacities, but such who have departed to be with Christ are in the present conscious enjoyment of his present glory. And that's far better. They have a far better.
Present waiting room if as it's been called.
And being able to enjoy with Christ is present glory.
Someone said the day of our death will be the happiest day of our life. We enter into these things fully.
Well, if we had one inkling of the glory that Brother Clem or any of our loved ones were experiencing in the presence of the Lord Jesus, in the conscious sense of the Lord's presence, we wouldn't wish them back for a moment. And if they had opportunity to come back for 5 minutes, they wouldn't want to come back. Because as you say, Brother Don, what they are enjoying is far more than we or they could ever anticipate. Paul knew something about it because he's been caught up there temporarily.
And when he said far better, he knew exactly what he was talking about. But I was thinking of what was quoted from Hebrews. And later on in Hebrews in the 10th chapter, where you have the Lord Jesus seated there again, it tells us what he's thinking about.
That interesting, it tells us what he's thinking about. He's seated at the right hand of God, henceforth expecting until his enemies be made his footstool. He's waiting for that day of vindication because while we look up and see the Lord Jesus where he is now by faith and we're occupied in some measure, I trust with those glories, yet he has never been vindicated on this planet. That cast him out. This planet cast him out. They said we will not have this man. They rejected him. They took him out.
After abusing him in one way or another, and they nailed him to a Roman cross and the last glimpse they saw of him was crowned with a crown of thorns, that which was part of the curse and hanging on a, on a cross of shame. And the Lord Jesus is still waiting for his vindication. And brethren, if that isn't an example for you and for me as we're here in the path of suffering now as we seek to follow in his steps, and I know we alluded it alluded to it in a previous meeting, but perhaps it bears repeating.
Are we looking for vindication now in this world? If we're looking to be popular or vindicated because of some misunderstanding or mistreatment, we are really missing the mark. We're missing what is laid out here as the example for us. How long has the Lord Jesus been waiting for His vindication? A lot longer than any other human being has ever waited. He's waited 2000 years.
At least for His vindication, is He going to get it? Yes, He is. And so it says in Peter where it speaks of Him leaving us an example in His suffering. If you say, how could He do all that He did without being vindicated? Before He left this world in ascension, He committed himself to Him that judgeth righteously. He knew that God the Father had the record down properly, and He also knew, as we've been saying, that there is a day coming.
And he's sitting there thinking about that day when his enemies are going to be made his footstools, and he's his footstool, and he's going to have his rightful place then, not just in heaven. He has that now, as we've been saying, he has that presently. Wherefore God has highly exalted him, Phyllis said. He is there. We see him there, crowned with glory and honor. That's present. But he is waiting for something that's future. And that's what we're waiting for too, aren't we?
We're waiting for something that's future, Paul said to the Corinthians. You're trying to to have it now. You're trying to have the glory now what that you did reign as kings, because if you did, it would be the time and we'd reign with you. But he said this is not the time to look for any vindication or glory here in this world or any acceptance. This is the time to follow a rejected Christ, knowing that there is a time when we're going to be glorified with Christ. A king shall reign in righteousness.
00:35:00
Certainly not occupying all these thoughts for sure.
As I've already occupied with these people the interests of Jesus Christ, we have later on in the chapter the things of Jesus Christ. Really in my French Bible says the interests of Jesus Christ there are is present interest and that we had that manifested last night in the longings of the Lord for the lost ones and in our prayer meeting this morning, the concern of the Lord for his people. These things also I believe are occupying him now.
Now when we when we get to the 12 rules now.
Therefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed.
Not only as in my present, but now much more in my absence.
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Now, this is the Apostle Paul is writing, and he's writing to the Philippians.
And he tells them that they should obey, as he has always obeyed.
And he tells him to keep on, to obey.
In his absence.
Handzan.
This very important thought. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Well, that doesn't mean that we should work for our salvation. We are safe.
But we gotta work it out. How do we work it out? They're obstacles.
This is really, this is really assembly salvation, isn't it? It's more more than individual salvation. It's assembly salvation. Paul wasn't there to help them.
Back in chapter one.
It says.
In.
For six, being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ, and then in verse.
13 It says of our chapter, It is God which worketh in you.
The early first churches in Philippi being one of them, had very special vessels given of God, the Apostle Paul and other such.
To help them through the difficulties that the assemblies faced and went through. And here this assembly had a problem in its midst, but there was no Apostle Paul to come and help them and.
That's the same today.
There are difficulties that come up among us in the various gatherings, and there's no Apostle Paul to come and help us out.
And Paul is bringing that out to them in the 12Th verse. Beloved, you obeyed in my presence, but now in my absence. He would have loved to come there in his natural desire to be a help, but he was in prison, and he had been in prison apparently several years.
And couldn't come at that point. And so we see in these verses the provision that he points them to. He said God's sufficient.
It's God that works, and God is sufficient for the need that you have to work out this problem and be saved collectively in the assembly through it. And brethren, that provision has not changed.
There are difficulties in the local.
Situations there are difficulties represented in this room this morning in various places, but here we have the fact that God says the apostle Paul is divinely inspired really to bring to us the truth that God works and he's sufficient and sometimes Artes tendency is to say, if only.
This person or that situation could be helped in some other way by someone who will say is absent, but it isn't always going to work out that way, that there will be some human person that comes to be the health. But the resource that is given here that Paul is presenting to his brethren is that it is God which worketh in you.
00:40:27
And among you to produce the result of a collective salvation. I'd just like to make two comments as we pass on to the verse 12. First is I just wanted to make the comment from verses 5 through 11. Obviously go together and just notice very briefly something that others have enjoyed, I'm sure too, But the names that the Lord Jesus is given. Notice in verse 3. This is the beginning of his descent. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
The order is important, isn't it? Christ is the anointed one, the one that God had appointed to be the Messiah, but he also became a man. So we noticed the precision of Scripture here. Then notice later on as our brother Bill mentioned in verse 10, that every name, that is the name of Jesus by itself, the one who was lowly and walked through this world with sandals on his feet. And then verse 11.
He's exalted now and noticed the order and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ, not Christ Jesus, but Jesus Christ, the one who walked in this world is now exalted Jesus Christ and he has his rightful place in heaven, as we've been saying, his Lord. That's his position now. Well, I just noticed that. It's remarkable to see the precision of Scripture and these things that we do well, the notice that.
But As for verse 12, two, I just wanted to make the comment that the common pattern of the apostle Paul and other divine writers, inspired writers, I should say, is that they take practical issues and they don't just say, well, I'm gonna solve your problem for you. But they tie it to fundamental truth. And so the fundamental truth, the issue was in the first few verses of our chapter, but the fundamental truth is in these verses 5 through 11.
That's why he says wherefore the practical issues are always tied to fundamental truth. That's the order of Scripture, and it's good for us to do the same thing. We have practical issues, how can we tie it to fundamental truth? That's the solution, isn't it? Back to the source, God Himself and what He's given to us.
This 12Th verse shows that the Philippian Assembly was in a good state and there was a potential to create division, but they were in a good state. As he alludes to their obedience. He was being proactive rather than reactive. In Galatians, he's reactive. It's already happened and he's addressing something that has grown in those in that region where the Galatians were. But here he's being proactive and giving them really a.
Yeah, a remedy for the curing of this thing that was had potential to create disunity in the in the assembly. And so when he says no, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. He's really saying no, I've given you the pattern. It's in the loneliness of the Lord Jesus. Now each one of you work that out together as an assembly locally and assembly will be saved from the inroads of the enemy to disrupt the unity. So the salvation that's referred to here is a practical salvation.
And it's a salvation that is a collective thing with regard to every person in the assembly. When I was younger, I used to, in fact, I've read recently somewhere, can't remember who said it, but this verse, this 12Th verse with regard to salvation being worked out has got like about 20, two different, uh, interpretations through the years. And most of them are wrong. But, uh, I, I have to admit that when I was younger, the way I understood it and wrong as it is, and I'll give it to you, is that, uh, we have our salvation. I was thinking of it like the gospel preacher announces salvation. You know you.
Salvation that secures heaven and so on for the believer. I thought, well, it's like I have my salvation. It's my own salvation, and now I need to work it out in my life. That is, get it out into real life and practice and let people see that I'm saved. Well, it was a nice thought, but that's not what this verse is talking about. And it's certainly true that we do need to get what we have is faith in our hearts out into our life and practice. Here he's talking about the assembly working it out among themselves.
00:45:10
And when our girls were younger, my wife would give them a little pattern or something, like doing stitching or something, and she's kind of started off for them, and then they give it to them. And the girls would try to follow the pattern and see if they could work it out, too. And it's just the same way, he says. I've given you the pattern. I'm not there to work it out for you. You're gonna have to work it out yourself with fear and with trembling.
Well, then, how does the agent make inroads today in the assembly? The assembly is mentioned here. So we have to work out our own salvation. How does Satan make inroads today into ours, into the assembly? What is taking place?
I was thinking of one thing if I may.
It it's pictures.
The Bible doesn't have any pictures in it, does it? I I haven't seen it unless people put some imaginary pictures of people into the Bible. The Bible doesn't have pictures, but we are in a world that is abundant with pictures.
That there's a catalogue coming into my house.
When you look at it, first of all, you wouldn't even want to look at it. But if you do look at it.
What do you see? You see the inroads that Satan makes in the world and in the assembly too.
You can hardly turn a page and.
You don't see some flesh exposed, There's nakedness exposed, flesh exposed and the scripture says flesh is good for nothing. So that's, that's one of the inroads that is happening Whi which we got, we got to be careful, uh, to even look at it and we have to sometimes.
Well, how do we how do we avoid these things?
I'd like to make some practical comments in connection with what's being said. I would just say there are pictures in the Bible. There were pictures, not pictures like we think of them, but there are the pictures and illustrations. But be that as it may, I'd like to make some practical comments in connection with working out our own salvation in a collective sense. Because if there's one thing the enemy hates, brethren, it's an assembly that's going on happily together in the truth of God.
And with a testimony in the gospel, sometimes as I visit assemblies, I often hear brethren say, well, we're having some very happy meetings and there seems to be a lot of love in this assembly and things are going on very well. But brother, that is not a time to sit back and relax because those are the kind of assemblies that the enemy is going to be right there to attack, because the enemy does not want, as I say, a happy spirit of things amongst the Saints.
Nor a powerful testimony in the gospel. And it's interesting in that regard that when you read the epistles that Paul wrote to various assemblies, the assemblies that were going on the best and the happiest are the assemblies that he prays for the most. You know, Ephesians, they were able to receive the highest truth twice, I believe at least he prays for them. Why does he pray for them? He knew they were a vulnerable assembly. He prayed if we had.
Read earlier in Philippians, he prayed for the Saints, that Philippians, why there was a testimony in the gospel. There was the joy of the Lord in the assembly. I realized a little wedge was coming in because the enemy is going to be right there. Villa Pie was an assembly where he wanted to bring in some distension between, uh, between different individuals. Because when there's, when those contentions and dissensions come in, it takes the focus off Christ. It spoils our joy and it hinders our testimony.
In the Gospel, I'd like to just say this too, in connection with working out these problems and difficulties that come into the assembly, that we have perhaps a little illustration of it in the upper room. Because we find there, if we were to go back to the 13th chapter of John, that a question arose amongst the disciples as they were gathered in the upper room with the Lord Jesus. It was the question of who was the betrayer, and it's very significant what happened initially there.
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They all look to one another and looking to one another they said is that I? Is it I and they? They asked amongst themselves, did that solve the problem? No brother, I have to hang my own head in shame and say that I have been in many brothers meetings where we have spent literally hours discussing a matter and never coming to any conclusion because we were only looking to one another. We were only taking up our own opinions and thoughts and looking to one another for the answers.
We're thankful for those that can give us answers from the Word of God. We're thankful for those who take oversight in the assembly and and that we can go to with a difficulty, but that isn't going to solve our problems in the end. And it wasn't until Peter down the table saw John leaning on the bosom of the Lord Jesus and asked John to ask the Lord that they got the answer to the problem that had arisen collectively amongst them Rather than I believe there's a pattern there for us.
Why is it we don't always get the answers to the difficulties that arise in the assembly collectively? I say again, it's because we do not look to the head. He's the head of the body, and as the head of the body, we look to him for direction when those things come to pass. The other thing too is we have the completed word of God. We have all these things, the seed of every problem that was going to arise among God's people in the church age.
Had already risen to some degree before the Canon of Scripture was completed so that it could be taken up with and dealt with by inspiration. So we have all the answers right here. We have everything we need, brethren, to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. We have the answer to every question not just that arises in our lives personally or as families, but to answer.
Every question that arises collectively amongst the people of God.
And another reason we don't always have those answers, and it leads to sad divisions and problems and brethren going their own way, is because we don't look to the Word of God. If we would collectively search the Word of God and bow to the Word of God as they did in the Acts when difficulties arose, there would be a unity in the conclusion of those matters.
That would not tear us apart, brethren, but that would keep us together in fellowship with our Head, the Lord Jesus, and as a result, in fellowship with one another. Allow me to make one more comment in a very practical way. Being gathered to the Lord's name yesterday morning, we expressed in the breaking of bread the truth of the one Body, and in doing that it brings us into a relationship.
Not a fellowship not only with Christ, but a fellowship with one another, that is.
Closer than any other fellowship on earth outside the family tie. The difficulty is that in doing that if the if grace.
Isn't and love aren't exercised. And if there isn't a looking to the head and a searching of the Word of God, when the problems arise, we are in such a close fellowship in that way that things are gonna seize up. That's why it's often been pointed out that in the 12Th chapter of First Corinthians you have the body of Christ.
In the 14th chapter you have the body in operation collectively in the assembly, but between the 12Th chapter and the 14th chapter, you have the 13th chapter, you have the love chapter, and that's the oil that keeps the machinery running properly. And so these things are very practical, but they're necessary, brethren, and they need to be carried out, they need to be worked out, and they need to be done with fear and trembling.
And to be more specific, the inroads that he's really addressing here is disagreements that lead to strife, which if not judged will lead to division. That's what he's addressing here. I think it's important to keep with what the subject is before us and the pattern is then given if we would humble ourselves and stop insisting on our rights and and being right and our view and so on.
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These things could be overcome in the local assembly and he says with fear and with trembling, because these things need to be taken up, realizing that we have enough potential in our own soul with the flesh, that we have to cause a lot of problems. Remember one time a brother said to me he walked into a meeting. It was if he was visiting, but he knew the lay of the land there. He said. I walked into the meeting. I looked over on one side and I saw Nitro. I looked over on the other side and I saw a glycerin.
I said I think we're in trouble.
You know what he meant? Sometimes we have disagreements and they fester and they, like, get bigger and bigger until it becomes a personality conflict. My own brother has said to me, the Assembly, Oh, I love the assembly. It's the people I can't stand. And he was serious.
You know what's going on and we have personalities and we have our we dig our heels in.
We have problems and don't think that it's the brothers in the care meeting this chapter. This book tells us that it was two sisters that were at loggerheads down in chapter 4. So every one of us young persons, sisters, brothers, whatever are potentially could be used as the enemy. And that's why we have to have fear and trembling realizing that you and I could be used of the enemy to do his work in the assembly. It'd be good to look at these verses in the 4th chapter.
It's instructive for us because.
The enemy would use little things and make big things out of little things, if we lose sight of the bigger things. And so it says in chapter 4, verse one. Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved, and long for my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. Verse two, I beseech Theodias and beseech syndicate that they be of the same mind.
In the Lord and I entreat thee also through yoke fellow, help those women.
Which labored with me in the gospel would Clement also and with other my fellow laborers whose names are in the book of life. So what we find here is to stand fast in the Lord and we had this beautiful character brought before us in the second chapter. What was the difficulty? Two sisters had a different mind doesn't tell us what it was about, but they had been fellow laborers with the apostle in the gospel might have been really good things They had different views about.
And.
We see what the apostle does. He doesn't have beseech both of you. He doesn't do that. He beseeches individually and the Lord does that. He beseeches us individually. You might not have the same mind on things as your brethren. It's not a question of going against the Word of God. We know in part. We don't know it all. We know in part.
But it tells us only by pride come with contention.
Knowledge, puff it up. We're all susceptible to that. So the enemy would use godly issues, points of doctrine that we hold and we lose sight of the Lord. We get away from the shadow of the cross that keeps us humble and knowing that each one of us, we could qualify ourselves as ignorant.
We are all ignorant in the measure. There are things that we do not know. So when we have differences of mind, we could allow for our brother to be right and I be wrong. Allow for that. Perhaps you're not convinced of that, but you can allow for that. And is the issue that important, that the body of Christ should be divided and the Lord grieved by seeing people that were remembering him and fellowship at his table on the ground of the one body?
Are LED astray.
But we need to borrow heads, brethren, and take heed to this besieging individual beseeching to be of the same mind, and this is not giving up truth, but it is being of the same mind as not raising up issues among us that we might not be of the same mind up. And we leave that, and we're gonna be in the presence of the Lord. It might not even be a question that would bring up will be in such a con contemplating His beauty and His glory, that all these things will will forget about. They become so important now when we take them up in the energy of the flesh.
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And that's not the fool of the Spirit. So may we take heed these simple exhortation here of differences of mind. And if we take heed to that, then we'll be kept from carrying on and making it bigger issues.
There's a verse in the Old Testament that I stumbled upon.
And that gave me a lot to think. The last five chapters in the Psalms speak about praise. Praise.
We are, we are praising the Lord all the time and the Lord needs to be praised.
And in the in, in these chapters, we read all the things that the Lord did, God did for himself and for us. But there's one worse.
Which I read that made me think.
It's one sign 147 + 9.
Starts out with AB. There is food, but then he comes and he all of a sudden he says he delighted not in the strength of the horse. He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man.
Now, what does he mean by that? Is that just addressing David and Solomon?
Brethren, uh, it seems as though the subject that we've had before, so necessary, we know, begs this question. Why do we so quickly, so easily lose sight of the head? And, uh, even though it's not the assembly in a couple of verses, I'd like to read first in the, uh, Mark Chapter 9.
And uh, perhaps, uh, verse 33.
And he came to Capernaum, and being in the house, he asked them, What was it that he disputed among yourselves by the way? And they held their peace for by the way they had disputed among themselves.
Who should be the greatest?
Well, our brother has brought before us here too, that, uh, only by pride cometh contention, or I believe the new translation says by the by pride come with only contention. And then you find in First Corinthians that, uh, uh, it was reported that there was conten contention among them. And almost immediately after we have the, those words is Christ divided. And so this is what happens with pride. Who should be the greatest? But then in, in Luke Chapter 9.
And verse, uh.
Perhaps verse 46. Yes. And when there are rows of reason among them.
Which of them should be greatest? And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, took a child, and set him by him, and said unto them, Whosoever shall receive this child in my name receiveth me, and whosoever shall receive me, receive of him that sent me. For he that is least among you, all the same shall be great again.
Going back to this.
What is it about our hearts that so quickly, so easily lose sight of the head? Well, a brother wrote that to him. Prone to wander. Lord, I feel it. And beloved brethren.
I know it's a desire of our hearts. We love our Press of Savior, but we do feel that in our own hearts too, that proneness to wander and to lose sight of Him. And Satan is busy and clever in his subtle ways to get our eyes off of Christ. Just one little quick story. And uh, with that, I'll close what I'm saying here. Many years ago there was the dear man.
He was in the service where I was there too and.
Not that I wanted to be, but uh, he was, uh.
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Brought in, rushed into the Infirmary, he'd been crossed between a dock and the and a truck that had backed up against him. And he was he was in a on a little platform there with his head lower than his feet. And yet I could see that he was dying. He was very, very pale.
Without any time.
Simply these words, no time to speak to him. He did say this. Am I dying? He whispered that to me.
And it was a privilege to say something that I see it for many years in Los Angeles. Those two words, Jesus saves. That's all I can say to him. Those two words Jesus saves. And just before he breathed his last, he said, Jesus. I trust we're going to see him in glory. But beloved brethren, there's our answer. Is that blessed name of Jesus made?
Our hearts affections be drawn out to Him. It'll help us in all of the fleshly things that so easily overtake us.
It's really a nice thought that was setting so many words the other day, but with the odious and sympathy. It doesn't say in the they're enjoined by the highest name that can be enjoined upon us, not to be of one mind, but to be of the same mind who's mine, the odious or synthesis, either one. To be of the same mind is to have the mind that was in Christ Jesus.
I'd like to look at a verse 2, verse, two first kings, or a couple verses.
Chapter 8.
First Kings 8 and verse 37.
If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting mildew, locusts.
Or if there be a Caterpillar.
If their enemy deceives them in the land of their cities, whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be, what prayer and supplication so ever be made by any man, or by all thy people, Israel. And then this is the phrase that was on my heart, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house.
Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do and give to every man, according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest. For thou even thou only knowest the hearts of all the children of of men.
Uh.
Many different pestilences and so on her name. But just think of that little Caterpillar or something so small, and then the enemy besieging the land, something so large, but the Lord brings it back down to every man, knowing the plague of his own heart. If we can get before the Lord individually. And the one who knows, only knows the hearts of all men.
And to in His presence see the plague of our own heart, that's really so often the root of the difficulties. And judge that before him. When it's just a little Caterpillar, then the enemy might not have to besiege the land.
I've been struck in, uh, reading the book of Job not too long ago that Job had things to learn and so did his three friends. But if we look at the book, uh, carefully, we noticed that the most spiritual one of those four people, of course, was Job. There's no doubt about that. But who is it that God deals with first? He deals with Joel, and that's often the way things are resolved, aren't they? He deals with the most spiritual first.
And where there's humbling of the most spiritual than the others that are not so spiritual may follow that example. And that's what we have in the following verses. I think that's a great secret. So just as you were saying, I think that is the problems among us, that we we all have things to learn just as Job had things to learn. But the break comes when those who are most spiritual take the little place.
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The verse for that, there's a verse for that, Joel 217 This is talking about the nation of Israel under the attack of the Assyrian. And they get down to the bottom. And then who is it that comes out? Let the priest and the ministers of the Lord weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, give no thy inheritance to reproach.
That's a heathen should not rule over them. Therefore should they say among the people, where is their God? And we know that restoration begins from that point. And what happened here too, Speaking of Job.
He it, it turned his heart, didn't it, when he could say mine. I see a thief, I and I see a thief. And when I think of that, seeing the Lord, and I think of my dear brethren here, the very mention of the name of Jesus.
Sure, if it doesn't and I believe does melt our hearts, but not only, uh, just the thought of his blessed name, but are going to him in prayer has been has been brought out. Uh, uh, so much here in connection with the assembly. Do we pray? I'm thankful I'm As for the Lord's the exercise the Lord would give us to pray for our little assemblies, each one because the Lord is the one who can keep the set the assembly.
As He can keep the individual but mine eyes saith they there's where we we need to go, don't we? So as long as those who are spiritual insist on their own rights, not saying to give up fundamental truth, the Word of God never teaches that, does it. But we all have things to judge, and those who are spiritual take the lead in judging themselves. Otherwise we're standing in the way of the peace of the assembly, aren't we?
Important lesson to learn, yes.
150.
Nsnoise.
Yes.